Ambarvalia was a
Roman agricultural fertility rite, involving animal sacrifices and held on
29 May in honor of
Ceres,
Bacchus and
Dea Dia.
However, the exact timing could vary since Ambarvalia was a "fariae conceptivae" - a festival not bound to a fixed date.
Summary
Ambarvalia is believed to have taken its name from the words "ambiō" - "I go round" and "arvum" - "field".
During the festival, they sacrificed a bull, a sow, and a sheep, which were led in procession thrice around the fields. This sacrifice was called a ''
suovetaurilia'' in
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
. Ambarvalia can be of two kinds: public and private. The private were solemnized by the masters of families, accompanied by their children and servants, in the villages and farms out of Rome. The public was celebrated within the city's boundaries, in which twelve ''
fratres arvales'' walked at the head of a procession of citizens who had lands and vineyards in Rome. During the procession, prayers would be made to the goddess.
The
''ambervale carmen'' was the preferred prayer.
The name "Ambarvalia" appears to be predominantly an urban designation. Roman farmers' almanacs ''(
Menologia rustica)'' describe this only as ''segetes lustrantur'' ("crops are purified").
, in his notes on
Festus, maintains the ambarvalia to be the same as
amburbium
The Amburbium ("City Circuit", from ''ambire'', "to go around" + ''urb-'', "city"; plural ''amburbia'') was an ancient Roman festival for purifying the city; that is, a lustration ''(lustratio urbis)''. It took the form of a procession, perhaps ...
. Numerous other communities of the Italian peninsula enacted similar rites with different names.
In literature
* "Ambarvalia" (1849) is a collection of poems by
Thomas Burbidge and
Arthur H. Clough.
* "Ambarvalia" (1933) a poetry collection by
Nishiwaki Junzaburo, is considered a seminal contribution to Japanese
modernism
Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
. Its influence is likened to that of
T.S. Eliot's "
The Waste Land".
* In chapter I of
Walter Pater's 1885 novel ''
Marius the Epicurean'', set in ancient Rome, the protagonist, Marius, engages in the ritual observance of Ambarvalia
In music
* "Ambarvalia" is an orchestral composition by
Ruth Gipps from 1988. It was first recorded in 2019 by
the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Notes
References
*
External links
*
Ancient Roman festivals
May observances
Processions in ancient Rome
Festivals of Demeter
Ceres (mythology)
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